South Island Circuit Titles for our King's Surfers

After a full series of events the boys performed well in the U14, U16 and U18 divisions on the South Island circuit. Surfing is a sport that allows for the athletes to surf both within their age range, and in one age division higher due to the cut-throat nature of competition.

This two-tier system means that surfers have a few chances to perform, which is crucial due to the amount of travel undertaken for each event. Aside from all that, they actually performed amazingly in the older bracket as well. Jack’s second and Keo’s fourth in the U18s (as Year 10s) is a fantastic result. The winner of the U18s is another Dunners surfer, World number. 4, Alexis Owen.

The big results are the South Island Titles for Jack, Keo and Flint (see below). A big congratulations to them for this amazing performance.

All of our competitive surfers are also competing in the North Island regularly as well, so there is a lot of commitment and work going into their sport from parents and supporters.

Our competitive surfers are Kalani Summerton, Jack Higgins, Flint Sherborne-France, Keo Morrison and Lewis Murphy.

U18 South Island Circuit

• Jack Higgins 2nd place

• Keo Morrison 4th place

U16 South Island Circuit

• Joint Champions: Jack Higgins and Keo Morrison

• Flint Sherborne-France 4th place

U14 South Island Circuit

• Champion: Flint Sherborne-France

 O’Neill Coldwater Classic, Kaikoura (The final event of the South Island Circuit)

The waves were a lot of fun and the boys had some great conditions. In the U18s, Flint Sherborne-France took fifth; Jack Higgins surfed to a great second place and Keo Morrison managed to finish ninth. That meant that Jack finished second for that series with Keo in fourth – a great result for the boys.

Heading into the O’Neill Coldwater Classic straight after the Raglan comp worked out well for Keo. He was quite far back in the rankings for the U16s of the SISA Circuit going in, so needed a really good result. He hit his straps to take the win ahead of Flint in third and Jack in fifth. That narrowly clawed back Jack’s lead to see Keo and Jack both awarded the title with 2,165 points. Flint finished fourth overall to make that a pretty compelling season for the King's surfers.

These are great results and a testament to the work being put in by the school, coaches, and the boys. They’re still a wee way behind the top North Island boys but if they can buckle down for the next few years they could be competing on the world stage. 

Just before the O’Neil Coldwater Classic was the …

 Quicksilver King and Queen of the Point, Raglan

This was a big event for Keo Morrison against some of New Zealand’s and Australia’s best surfers who were taking part. Unfortunately, the waves were tiny, which played into the hands of the local surfers. Keo ended up 33rd in the Open Men’s (tying with the great Tom Carroll, which was nice) and 25th in the U20s. He was a bit disappointed but actually surfed well and learnt a lot, especially seeing a few of the Aussie surfers in action. That resulted in him finishing 83rd overall in the Open Men’s of the 2024 New Zealand Surf Series, which is a great result given he only contested one of the four events. It’s a big mountain to climb, but great for him to see just what that gap is to the best surfers, like Billy Stairmand, Kehu Butler and World Qualifying Series number. 1 Joel Vaughan (Aust). Lewis Murphy finished in 46th overall. 

Next up is the NZ Schools Event at Raglan on the 13th August. King’s has three surfers having a tilt at that: Flint Sherborne-France, Jack Higgins and Kalani Summerton. The boys will be representing King’s in this event. A big thanks to parent support for getting the boys up to the event and we wish the boys well.

Looking ahead, Dunedin is hosting the National Scholastics Surfing Competition in September. This is an event for surfers of High School age representing their regions. Six of our boys are in the Otago/Southland team: Lewis Murphy, Keo Morrison, Flint Sherborne-France, Jack Higgins, Kalani Summerton and Chris Jenks (reserve surfer).